First International Conference for PhD students in Civil Engineering CE-PhD 2012, 4-7 November 2012,Cluj-Napoca, Romania www.sens-group.ro/ce2012 Urban strategies for Traffic Safety Elena Otilia Tărîţă Cîmpeanu (căsătorită Pîrlea) *1 , Alina Burlacu 2 1,2 Technical University of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Railways, Roads and Bridges, Bucureşti, România Abstract At first sight, urbanism and traffic safety have no important connection between each other. But taking a closer look, urbanism has a significantly greater impact on traffic safety than we might think. Unfortunately a lot of people who deal with urbanism are unaware of that fact. The road function is defined by a series of elements, such as the presence of different traffic participants, especially vulnerable road users (mixed function), speed limit, traffic volume, road geometry, the shape and size of vehicles. Roads should be designed taking into consideration their functions, in such a way for the traffic to flow smoothly and evenly, with a clear, credible and safe design, in order to provide safety for all. Urbanism and spatial planning are tools for achieving synergy among requirements, possibilities and road function in order to achieve sustainable development of a certain area. By proper planning, we can ensure efficient public transport with a positive traffic and mobility impact, energy savings and positive influence on the environment. In most cases, because of inappropriate urbanism decisions made, the drivers cannot drive and (re)act in traffic situations with care and safely. The municipalities and residents alongside the roads are then demanding from the road operators to fix problems through traffic signs. This type of situations are very difficult for the road users and unnecessary. The driver experiences a visual overload and the signs have no effect. On the contrary, they confuse the driver and require extra attention. The problems originating from the inappropriate and unprofessional urbanism cannot be fixed with traffic signs. Keywords: roads, urbanism, traffic safety, transportation planning, 1. Transportation Planning Transportation planning is a continuing, comprehensive and collaborative process to encourage the development of a multimodal transportation system to ensure safe and efficient movement of people and goods while balancing environmental and community needs. The process is designed to promote involvement by all levels of government, stakeholders and the general public. The planning process examines demographic characteristics and travel patterns for a given area, shows how these characteristics will change over a given period of time and evaluates alternative improvements for the transportation system. The long-range transportation plan should consider the role and function of a multimodal transportation network for an entire region or metropolitan area. Corridors are transportation pathways that provide for the movement of people and goods between and within activity centers. A corridor plan encompasses single or multiple transportation routes or facilities (such as thoroughfares, public transit, railroads, highways, bikeways, trails, or sidewalks), the adjacent land uses and the connecting network of streets. Corridor planning encompasses a scale that is large * Corresponding author: Tel./ Fax.: 0724.30.42.47; 0722.258.336 E-mail address: otiliapirlea@yahoo.com; burlacu_alina@yahoo.com